How to Estimate Hardwood and Laminate Flooring

Calculating square footage is easy. The hard part of estimating flooring is understanding box coverage and how your layout pattern affects your waste factor. Get it wrong, and you'll be one plank short of finishing the living room.

Square Footage and Box Coverage

Flooring is almost always sold by the carton or box. Each box contains a specific amount of square footage—usually between 18 and 25 sq ft depending on the plank width and manufacturer. You cannot buy a partial box.

If your room is 12 feet by 15 feet, your total area is 180 square feet. If the flooring you chose covers 24 square feet per box, you might think you need 7.5 boxes (which means buying 8). But that calculation ignores the waste factor.

The Layout Dictates the Waste

Whenever you reach a wall, you have to cut a plank. Sometimes you can use the cutoff piece to start the next row, but often it's unusable scrap. If you are laying flooring straight, you need a 10% waste factor. If you are laying it diagonally or in a herringbone pattern, you need a 15% to 20% waste factor because of the severe angled cuts at every wall.

Doing the Final Math

Let's revisit our 180-square-foot room with a standard straight layout.

  1. Start with 180 sq ft.
  2. Multiply by 1.10 (to add 10% waste). You now need 198 sq ft of actual material.
  3. Divide 198 by your box coverage (24 sq ft).
  4. 198 ÷ 24 = 8.25 boxes.
  5. Because you cannot buy 0.25 of a box, you must round up. You need exactly 9 boxes for this project.

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Figure out exactly how many boxes of hardwood, laminate, or LVP you need, complete with custom waste factors.

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Don't Forget the Transitions

Your boxes of flooring do not include the trims needed to finish the job. For every doorway, you will need a T-molding (if transitioning to the same height floor) or a Reducer (if transitioning to a lower floor). You will also need matching quarter-round or shoe molding for the perimeter of the entire room if you aren't removing the existing baseboards.